Ignominy at Ibrox

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Ignominy at Ibrox
 Article by: Richard Fillingham

If you thought last Sunday’s shambolic first half at Hampden Park was bad – and you were right, you had to suffer an even more embarrassing situation at Ibrox yesterday in another one-sided 90-minute display. This time it was much worse with a resounding 1–5 demolition job on our own patch – totally demoralising!

In fairness, I don’t think too many of us were expecting a miracle result yesterday, coming so soon after only six days following the last outing to try and gain some confidence back into this easily-beaten Rangers team. It was left to Pedro Caixinha to convince his players that they could compete with an unbeaten SPL Celtic team at Ibrox, to warn his players not to stand off against this well-balanced opposition and to show the desire and passion missing from last week.

The game was all over for Rangers after only 6 minutes when referee John Beaton, in his first Old Firm game, had no option but to award Celtic a penalty after an extremely rash and naïve challenge by our young 18-year-old Maltese-born left back Myles Beerman who clearly brought down Patrick Roberts in the box.

It was completely unnecessary as the ex-Man City right winger was heading away from goal, but the Rangers players were advised to get stuck in and make their presence felt. Unfortunately, he simply misjudged his tackle and totally missed the ball and Roberts cleverly left his legs where they should be guaranteeing the penalty. 

Patrick Roberts again roasted Myles Beerman throughout the match and made me wonder why Caixinha again chose to play him at left back this week, when he had failed so miserably at Hampden. Admittedly Hodson failed a fitness test and Wallace was still unavailable so Ped’s hands were a tad tied. However, he has only just turned 18 and hopefully he can come back stronger and has a good future ahead of him at Rangers once he gets more games under his belt. I am sure the experience of the last four or five weeks in the starting XI will help his long term Ibrox career.

The reason I wanted to play with three centre backs and two wing backs yesterday was to exclude Beerman from being subjected to further torture, and I will say it once again – Tavernier is not a good enough defending right back to play in our back four.

The first two goals were mistakes by our own players. Beerman’s penalty for the first and then Foderingham should have saved Griffiths’ shot for the second. It was the right height for our goalkeeper who got his hand to it but couldn’t stop it going in. Indeed, the keeper should have come out and cleared the ball for Celtic’s fifth goal from the free kick as it happens as well.

Brendan Rodgers has now proven that he is the only English Premiership quality manager presently featuring in the SPL and this might be what Rangers have to do to get back to competing against our fiercest opponents – sign that standard of manager – but that will cost a lot of money.

Since Walter Smith was our manager – we have had to suffer Ally McCoist (first time manager), Mark Warburton (was it a gambling experiment worth trying)? And now Pedro Caixinha (another huge gamble) by our skint board.

None of it inspires, from the board, to management, down to the squad.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Fellow bears we are going to have to get used to this new reality at our great club. Naive management and unproven players both not used to success and as such too accepting of defeat. Historically we got players who were proven winners who did not accept defeat or pkayers who stood out at other clubs as being their go to guys. This coupled with a strong no nonsense management team who knew what we were about. Without cash we have to use what little we have on a manager who can extract every ounce of effort and motivation from a limited squad and instill a winning mentality and cohesion on the park. Pedro aint it!!!.. if we squander any more funds on bargain basement players with no idea what we are about and couple this with mediocre physical and mental coaching we will be competing with Aberdeen etc for second place whilst we watch Celtic collect treble after treble. Only solutions? Accept that our financial situation will not improve and get the best possible manager we can..again Ped aint him!! Or hope a takeover takes place with deep pockets who will completely overhaul the team. Either way looks like a lot of pain in the meantime…sadly!

  2. What I don't understand with Beerman is why he was left so exposed, throughout the game. Surely a sensible choice would have been to play McKay left wing and instruct him to help protect Beerman. I feel sorry for the lad he was given very little help or protection.

    • A very good point. I also don't understand why Caixinha told Rodgers what formation we were going to play, during his television interview before the match. This was naivety on our manager's part as Rodgers knew before kick off that Beerman was going to get very little help or protection.

  3. Skint or not Caixinha should not have been allowed anywhere near Ibrox. He is totally unpredictable in a bad way. He should have been able to set us up to be at least hard to beat. He has taken full responsibility for yesterdays abomination and combined with last weeks shambles that should see him shown the door. It is truly a shocking state of affairs.

  4. The talk before the game was how did Brown dodge a suspension to get to play against us the sad fact is that they could have played Paw Broon and the twins and still have won so bad was our team,we now have to have another attempt to completely rebuild a team from scratch sad to say I have my reservations about the new manager so it is a dilemma is he capable of getting it right? we cannot afford another Warburton only time will tell

  5. I think the board as I have said before went the totally wrong way about appointing a manager. There should have been a vetting procedure with Smith and others to form a short list for the board to make an appointment instead of which they chose Pedro a very good talker but with no evidence of previous success. As the chairman of his previous club stated they would not have been renewing his contract anyway not surprising as he only won three of his last seven matches in charge. Which begs the question who within the Rangers board identified him above all others as being the manager to take us forward? What we needed was a manager who understood what Scottish football is all about in particular the physical aspect. All I saw from the stands yesterday was men against boys. We were brushed off the ball so many times. Holt, Halliday, Windass, Hyndman and Beerman provided no physical challenge whatsoever. As for tactics what a joke he like Warburton tried to play out from the back inviting four of their players to be within 35 yards of goal as we had the eventually hoof from deep. Pedro has to go and he will need to be replaced by someone anyone with knowledge of how football is played here and recruit accordingly.

  6. Pedro Caixinha had to convince his players that they could compete with Selltic but now he knows with this squad of players second best will be all they could be and in some cases one off cup games we could be beat by any team.

    Pedro has a long road ahead if he has time to bring in new players maybe not.

  7. Richard…to follow on with what you said,I dont think we need to have an english premiership class manager…although it would be great…we just need to take a step back a couple of years and go after another man that bleeds blue blood like the rest of us…In hindsight Stuart mcall should have got the job…there is no need to restate his qualifications, I think we would be better off if we begged that guy to come back to the rangers family…if only pedro would realise that he has no chance of success at Ibrox and come to an arrangement with rangers to terminate his contract

  8. I was never in favour of Pedro to take over as our manager, not because he cant manage or didn't know the 'lay of the land' or because he has no clue. Far from it, I was more against his appointment because I feel it takes a certain type of man to manage a team, and it takes a very different man to manage a big team…and it takes an even different person to successfully manage an institute like Rangers.Men like these do not come cheap, they cost money and in a world of finances, you have to speculate to accumulate. To firstly attract someone of the calibre of someone we need they will demand some pretty cast iron guarantees about things like funding, which is where we fall flat on our faces every time. Go to any top class manager and tell them the club will be funded on ST monies and loans and they may be polite and renege the offer, or burst out laughing.
    Teams with 'ambition' have a funding package/structure in place that people can look at and see there is a progression to grow through X,Y,Z investment and funding proposals. Our club has not delivered Audited Accounts for how long now? My guess since King delisted us so he can hide the real facts. We do not even have a recognised Auditor verifying our 'un-audit accounts' which tell you Jack Shit about the state of the club as …guess what…they are UN-AUDITED and in-VERIFIED….spin and lies make up the most of them and burying the truth becomes paramount when you have something to hide.Whatever happened to the 'Transparency' King and his fellow Concreters promised us? Answer that one and you will go a long way to figuring out why we are in a fuckin mess and have no clear way out. No manager worth his salt would entertain us, and as nice a man as Pedro seems to be, he falls short of someone who will attract and instil a belief that we as a club and they as a team are going anywhere.
    We have suffered our heaviest defeat at Ibrox by our biggest rivals, our fans have been mocked from our own stands and our team gave up without a whimper. We are in an appalling state and are now living on loans until the honest punters fork out for their Season Books again…then what? Minimal transfer activity, some freebies in and some out on free's … no progress because everyone is too bust=y dealing with the shit storms and lack of clarity and direction our whole club revolves around…Glasgow Rangers FC, a once proud honest club now reduced to a vehicle for blazer chasers and 'not quite up to standard, managers and players…a damning indictment of where we are at and how far down the ladder we have fallen.I don't only blame the players and the manager, the whole 'package' is fundamentally flawed and needs fixing.
    Dave King will not go down the Fan Ownership route as it interferes with his model of dominance and dictatorial rule, so that option looks dead in the water. For that model to work, like it does in many clubs in Germany, you need your other 50% to stand up to the plate and fund things/attract investment and to ensure the fans voices are heard and acted upon, there again a no no for King. So we are at a crossroads I feel and the onus switches to our current Board and what they do. If, as many predict, King will be fingered for his Concert Party activities, and more than likely all those who have been in Concert with him, will do? The resultant outcome of this will dictate if we rise or fall, this is some very serious shit that people really need to start looking at, remember what happened when we trusted people before…..well I have never trusted King and never will….its time people with voices stepped up and confronted him and his Concert Party and get them to tell us what the future holds.
    People are hurting bad and its understandable, after that shocker yesterday questions need to be asked and BIG answers need to be forthcoming.

  9. It looks as if we have a new Paul Le Guen,please sort it out.We need a proven British Manager.Also a lot of investment.

  10. The demise has coincided with, like it or not, the emrgence of a good Celtic team. I would actually say very good. something many Bears are scared or reluctant to admit or simply try to explain away. Rodgers says they will get better, Im not sure of that, but thats not Rangers immediate problem. Firstly, there is little or no money to thrpow at this, many of the players are also on long contracts and cannot simply be bought off, and are unlikely transfer targets for other clubs. Its hard to see a way out at present other than a buy out of the current board by a man willing to invest heavily in the club, If that does not materialise the we all have to get used to the staus quo being in place indefinitely. Incredible really. These problems stem rign back as far as Murray and the current court proceedings could see more misery , in football terms , for Rangers supporters

  11. We need patience.

    Pedro is still working with the same dross that Warburton brought in. He has been there less than 2 months and needs time and his own players before judgement.

    All this calls of "let's play a brand new system the players aren't used to" makes no sense. They can't perform their duties in a formation they know! It's constant individual mistakes that cost us games (Wes in particular over the last 2 games)

    Is Pedro the right man for the job? I don't know. But Celtic were rubbish last year, Rodgers brought in some of his own players and now look at the difference.

    Progress doesn't happen over night, give the man a full season with two transfer windows and judge at the end.

    If we are not improved by then, we should start talking about him going

  12. Paul Murray is unusually quiet. Would be good to see another one of his Q&A interviews with Keith Jackson…

  13. Problem is that Pedro, like the rest the them is on long contracts, some say get the kids in and drop all those wasters from the first team, great idea but potentially kill their young careers buy handing them the sole responsibility to preform as a Ranger at 16-17 years old in front of 50,000,or more like 25-30,000 now and like Zzikester says, we must get used to this new reality dawning on our great club, make no mistake, we need investment on a scale that it would be almost impossible to guarantee a return within 10 years and if it does not happen then we will be going backwards at the same speed that those across the City will be going forward with unchallenged CL revenue.

  14. What can I say that's not already been said. Warburton and Co. Shite! Murty started to turn the team around and then along came Pedro. Shite. OK it's not his team but neither was it Murtys. Ped has had long enough now to realise who his best team is and his best formation. Terresa May comes to Scotland to say vote for me and you will be alright under my leadership. Bullshit. The same kind of Bullshit King and Co expect us to believe. You can't see this but I throw my arms in the air and say 'what the f going on'. Get rid of this board and management now.
    (I'm just having a rant).

  15. There's little basis for saying that Murty turned the team around. You can't judge that on a few games, good and all as were some of the results he got.

  16. I don't blame the manager at all. We've all seen the same players bottle when Warburton was there. It's hard to be too hard on the players either because the majority are simply limited. I think higher quality additions will make a noticeable improvement next year but Celtic will still be too much for us.

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